Yakubarai

In this buddhist culture based country, Japan, we have a saying that we have an unlucky year based on the age you become in the year. For example, women who turn 18 this year may have misfortune in the year (there are few age groups separately for both women and men).

February 13th is the day when we can exorcise the damons that could bring misfortunes to one's life, and today was the day to break such jinx. My youngest sister is turning 18, so we went to a local shrine to break the jinx on her behalf. So my mom made some dumplings and wrapped each of them in a paper. We say that by making the dumplings, we seal the evil spirits in them. In our case, my mom (as an example) sealed the evil spirit that could bring misfortunes to my youngest sister's life.

Here is a photo of an area around the shrine. Notice, you see all these food stalls.

Below food stand sells octopus balls.

At the shrine,my mom gave the home made dumplings to the people at the shrine, gave some offerings to request them to exorcise the evil spirits and give her a wooden lucky charm, and prayed along with my dad. Here is aphoto of my parents praying for my youngest sister.

We requested them to make a wooden lucky charm for my youngest sister (with her name on it), and since it would take a few minutes, we decided to check out some of the food stands. As a kid, I used to love festival
like this, as I got to buy stuff from the food stands, and it was full of FUN!

We got the lucky charm for my youngest sister, so we went back to the car and went to a nearest sports/auto parts shop, where my dad started having a lecture to a shop employee, who appeared to be his friend. LOL I find my dad enjoy talking whole a lot for a guy, and it canbe quite amusing sometime. Sometime, when he starts talking at the dinner table, I feel that I shall listen to him patiently, as he does not get to give lessons to his daughters as frequently as he may desire. But it has becoming clear to me at this age that he simply enjoys talking. LOL I got quite bored and tried so hard to kill the heated discussion atmosphere, but all of my trials ended with failures. SoI got a car key from him finally and then decided to chill and wait for my parents in the car. I was bored, so I took photos of myself. LOL

Tomorrow is my mom's b-day. I plan on making a dinner for her. I also think of making a b-day desert as well. Hopefully it will turn out great. I will post some photos for you guys to view :) Okay, I better try to go and sleep now. good nite.